CHANEL MILLER: the woman the system called "Doe," who wrote the words that outlasted the judge.

[Swede]

She was 23. The man who assaulted her was a Stanford swimmer with a scholarship and a courtroom full of character witnesses.
The legal system had a maximum sentence on the table: 14 years.
The judge looked at the young man's future — then gave him six months in county jail.
She wrote 7,000 words and read every one of them out loud.
The judge wasn't the one who decided how this story ended.
January 2015, Stanford University. Two graduate students saw a man on top of an unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside a fraternity party. They chased him down. They held him until police arrived.
The woman didn't remember any of it. She woke up in a hospital with pine needles in her hair.
The court called her Emily Doe.
Brock Turner was convicted on three felony counts of sexual assault in March 2016. California law allowed up to 14 years in state prison.
On June 2, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in county jail. He explained that a longer sentence might have "a severe impact" on Turner.
Turner served three months.
Before the sentencing, Doe had written and read a victim impact statement — more than 7,000 words, addressed directly to Turner. She opened it: "You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today."
She described removing pine needles from her own hair and skin in a hospital exam room. She described reading about her own assault online before anyone told her directly what had happened.
On June 3, 2016, BuzzFeed published her full statement.
Within four days, 11 million people had read it.
It was translated into other languages. It was read aloud on the floor of Congress.
Thousands of survivors wrote in to say her words gave them language for their own experiences, some for the first time.
A Stanford law professor named Michele Dauber organized a campaign to remove Judge Persky from the bench.
It took two years.
In June 2018, voters recalled Persky — the first time California voters had recalled a judge from office in more than 80 years.
That same year, 2016, the California legislature had already passed new laws closing the loophole Persky's sentence exposed — making prison time mandatory for assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated victim, and expanding the legal definition of rape to include digital penetration.
For three years, the world still only knew her as Emily Doe.
In September 2019, she published a memoir. On the cover was her real name: Chanel Miller.
Know My Name became a New York Times bestseller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the California Book Award.
Layer one: Chanel Miller wrote a single 7,000-word statement that outlasted the sentence a judge handed down, and helped end that judge's career.
Layer two: in just over three years — from an unread courtroom statement in June 2016 to a recalled judge in 2018 to a bestselling memoir in 2019 — her words reshaped both California law and a national conversation about sexual assault sentencing.
Layer three: as survivors today still weigh whether speaking publicly is worth the cost, her statement remains one of the clearest proofs that a single testimony, written and shared in full, can move further than the courtroom that produced it.
CHANEL MILLER: the woman the system called "Doe," who wrote the words that outlasted the judge.
If her statement gave you language for something you'd never been able to say out loud, tell us — even just a little of it — in the comments.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bgf6iYLXU/

[ultralite001]

1. Krasnov continues the rape of America 24 / 7 / 365...

How do we hold Krasnov, Krasnov's courts + cronies, + the GOP accountable for allowing
these heinous acts to continue... America is being harmed daily.

Krasnov: "You don't know us..." Your assault needs to stop... NOW.

[erronis]

2. Thank you so much for posting that FB post.

Many (most?) of us won't go to that outlet to get real information - and this is important information to keep alive.

[ancianita]

3. Thank you! Best two sentences (imo):

--- ... her words reshaped both California law and a national conversation about sexual assault sentencing.
--- ... her statement remains one of the clearest proofs that a single testimony, written and shared in full, can move further than the courtroom that produced it.

[Cha]

4. Chanel Miller's story is chilling

What an amazing woman ☮️💙🌻🕯️🕊️

So Fortunate those "two grad students" caught Brock Turner in his vicious, sexual assault act, and chased him down.

Just read this...

Brock Turner resides in the Dayton, Ohio area, goes by his middle name, Allen Turner, and remains on the lifetime sex offender registry. He has maintained a low public profile to avoid being recognized in local establishments.

Mahao, Swede

[bobalew]

5. Thhe whole thing. screams WHITE CLASS PRIVILEGE...

There is a culture of white male middle & upper class impunity .The attutude is they have the god given right to use any available & opportune female or economically subjugated victim to their hearts content, at worst. and to circumvent any legal constraint they so desire, because they are entitled to it. The more affluent, the more entitled they become. I've seen it throughout my lifetime, growing up poor. I've been treated as less than because of my social status. I've watched injustices visited on myself & others at the hands of my "betters" . Royalism never went away, it just hid itself, imbedded in capalist society, rearing its ugly head whenever an opportunity arose. Then receiving large support from the rest of those inethical morons, because that implies social privilege, and god forbid they be actually held accountable. It is so highly visible at the top, whether it be in the Republican congress, presidency, or corpirate heirarchy, it assumes the same royal structure, just shifted into other aspects of our society. As you can see it pisses me off to no end. .. It is going to take one hell of a paradigm shift to rid ourselves of this horrid psychological burden on our majority . We are ruled by a minority of entitled assholes. Thanks so much for the opportunity to RANT..

[ShazzieB]

6. This reminds me of something that came out during the E. Jean Carroll case.

That same year, 2016, the California legislature had already passed new laws closing the loophole Persky's sentence exposed — making prison time mandatory for assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated victim, and expanding the legal definition of rape to include digital penetration.

New York State law didn't include digital penetration in the legal definition of rape at the time of E. Jean Carroll's first lawsuit against Trump, thereby providing MAGA cultists with an excuse to claim that what he did to her was not "really" rape. (If I had $5 for every time I've heard or read of one of them making that claim, I would not be a billionaire or even a millionaire, but I would have enough $$$ to take myself and Mr. B out for a really nice dinner! )

MAGA apologists are still using this as an excuse to quibble about that verdict. What none of them seem to realize is that the language of New York State law was changed after the E. Jean Carroll verdict brought attention to this deficiency in its definition of rape.

More info: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-york-expands-the-legal-definition-of-rape-to-include-many-forms-of-nonconsensual-sexual-contact

I plan on keeping this info in my back pocket for the next time this comes up. I know it won't convince the really obstinate ones, but there have been some that I'm pretty sure would have been at least thrown off balance by being informed that the exact behavior that was not defined as rape in New York law before 2024 now is. Hey, MAGAs, it's rape NOW, even if it wasn't always defined that way!

[Chicagogrl1]

7. Goosebumps

Chanel is so brave!